The present disclosure relates to monitoring a software application and reporting how performance of the software application may impact a modeled process that depends on the software application.
Business owners promote the predictable success of their business by clearly defining and iteratively improving the goals, policies, and procedures of the organization. Technologically, this has been assisted by products that help business owners in this task of defining and managing the business's processes. These products are sometimes referred to collectively as Business Process Management (BPM) tools. Workflow Engines are a related tool. A workflow engine is a software application that manages and executes modeled computer processes.
Using such tools, processes may be modeled and executed. For example, business owners may define Business Processes (BP) and execute models of the Business Processes on a computing device. This may involve modeling a business process as a sequence of actions having some flow. The business process, when executed on the computing device, may be able to access some external service, such as a Web Service. The external service may be referred to as a “partner”. Based on results of the execution, the Business Process may be refined and improved. Note that such tools are not limited to Business Processes. For example, a workflow could be modeled and executed on a computing device.
Such tools can perform a variety of functions including monitoring the progression or execution of process instances, discovering new processes and/or compliance with existing processes, as well as recording and auditing of process related activities.
Numerous languages have been developed to allow a user to model and execute processes such as Business Processes and workflows. One example is the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL). WS-BPEL defines a model and a grammar for describing the behavior of a business process based on interactions between the process and its partners. The interaction with each partner may occur through Web Service interfaces. In WS-BPEL, the structure of the relationship at the interface level may be encapsulated in what is referred to as a partnerLink. The WS-BPEL process defines how multiple service interactions with these partners may be coordinated to achieve a business goal, as well as the state and the logic necessary for this coordination.